IN THE CLASSROOM -- Build a little birdhouse

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA - With their small faces set in various grimaces of

concentration, first-grade students at Victoria Elementary School built

their very own birdhouses Monday.

Eager students grabbed slabs of wood as if this was just the easiest

project in the world -- even though some of them didn’t know if they were

left-handed or right.

Now, if hammers and nails in the hands of small children seems

dangerous to you, put your fears to rest.

There were several adults closely monitoring the situation, and it’s

impossible for children to smash their fingers when they hold the hammer

with two hands.

As a helper -- it was impossible to merely stand by and watch -- I did

get one mighty whack on the thumb from the apologetic Lindsey Farney, 7.

Lucky for me, children also can’t swing the hammer with quite the same

force as an adult.

The woodworking project was the culmination of an impromptu science

lesson about birds the children had been working on. After reading a

story about a girl who watched birds out of her classroom window,

students were enthralled with the topic, said teacher Heather McCormick.

And so they learned about different birds, their habitats and their

needs.

McCormick then had her father, retired wood shop teacher Keith

McCormick, come in to give students a half-hour lesson on safety with the

tools, measurement, angles, geometry and the right lingo to go along with

their work.

With all that learning out of the way, it was time for some hands-on

fun.

One group of students stood at the worktable -- tongues inevitably

sticking out, while two little hands held death grips on the hammers just

below the head.

Another group of students sat at their desks writing a story about the

birdhouse that they were going to build.

“Birdhouse fun to make,” wrote Matthew Fewel, 6. “Birdhouse fun for

birds. Birds eat seeds.”

A third group did a printing exercise and drew a picture, while the

last group was planning the designs they would paint on the birdhouse

when it was done.

“I made a robot on mine, ‘cause he has all the shapes -- a rectangle,

a square and triangles,” announced Drew Cain, 6, who had apparently taken

the geometry portion to heart.

Lindsey drew dozens upon dozens of hearts on hers.

“Because it’s my nickname too,” she said of the hearts. “My dad

thought of it.”

No injuries and tons of cute birdhouses made the project a success.